


In Which Kiza Didn't Ask for the Treatment

by halwen



Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: Character Study, Female-Centric, Gen, Podfic Welcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-12 12:13:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5665699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halwen/pseuds/halwen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>She hadn't asked for the recode treatment. Hadn't known it was even an option, really, on the backwater planet she and her father had washed up on.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Which Kiza Didn't Ask for the Treatment

She hadn't asked for the recode treatment. Hadn't known it was even an option, really, on the backwater planet she and her father had washed up on. And in fairness, the chain of events that had led to the treatment being even a remote possibility was so far-fetched as to be nearly impossible. And yet, the option had presented itself, and she had taken it.

Not that that was really in doubt, not that she could have looked into her father’s face, glowing with excitement, and turned it down. Not that she could have held in her hands the opportunity of a lifetime she wouldn’t otherwise live, and let it fall.

But by the time the choice came to her, all the sacrifices had been made, all the battles fought and all the wars won. By the barest sliver of chance, to hear her father tell it, and in this, she believed him.

If he’d asked her, before leaving, what she wanted, she would have asked him not to leave, that the price was too high. In the end, the price they had nearly paid had been far, far higher. She liked to think that she would have tried harder to stop him, had she known. If she'd known what it would cost her (nearly her father), what it would cost her father (nearly the legion, nearly his friend, nearly his life).

What it would have cost the planet she and her father had found refuge on was a bigger question, too big for her to look at all at once. She had to take pieces of the question out and examine them sideways, think about them late at night. If something had gone wrong, their mailbox in town would have filled up with junk mail (but not for long). If something had gone wrong, no one would be here to take care of the bees (but they wouldn't have lived for long). If something had gone wrong, the irrigation system would have stopped working and the acres of corn surrounding their house would have withered (but that wouldn't have mattered for long).

If something, anything, had gone differently, her life would have been considerably shorter, in one way or another. 

That was the irony of it, in a way: the plan had worked, and she’d gotten the gene therapy. If it hadn't, she and all of humanity would have been harvested. The world where she didn't get the therapy and yet humanity remained was impossible.

Her father hadn’t known, at the time, about the harvesting. He’d imagined that they would have had time to gather their belongings, to find transport off-world, to get to the treatment center.

Jupiter, however, told it another way: in her version, Balem Abrasax had been moments from ordering the harvest, which would have begun immediately. Seven billion bodies was a rich crop.

But the plan had worked, and she had gotten the treatment, and now both she and this planet and those seven billion lives would continue on.

She liked to think that that linked her to this planet, at least a little. It was nice to belong somewhere, even if you'd come by a roundabout route - and her route had been very roundabout.

But they were partners in survival now, she and Terra. Survival by the hand of Jupiter Jones.


End file.
